Anti-Semitism

Anti-Semitism is discrimination against Jews, a term first coined in 1879 in the German Empire as a scientific alternative to the phrase of Judenhass (Jew-hatred). Anti-Semitism has always been a major problem faced by the Jews, starting with their persecution in Egypt and continuing when they were exiled to Babylonia and during the formation of the diaspora. During the Middle Ages, the Jews were persecuted by the Christians, who massacred Jews and Muslims alike during the Crusades and blamed the Jews for the Black Death (the Flagellants claimed that the Jews had poisoned the water supply), for financial debt, and for murdering Christian children to use their blood for baking bread (the "blood libel" myth). In the 20th century, pogroms (massacres or attacks against Jews) became common in the Russian Empire and in other Jewish-majority areas with Christians attacking the Jews and destroying their property. Anti-Semitism was infamously a major policy of the Nazi Party and other fascist parties, and 6,000,000 Jews were murdered by Nazi Germany during the Holocaust, many of them in either Poland or the Soviet Union. The USSR was accused of anti-Semitism, as Joseph Stalin was openly anti-Jewish, while other leaders were anti-religious in general. Today, anti-Semitism is seen among groups advocating white nationalism, jihad, or Palestinian nationalism.